DNSCog reports on your website’s domain name servers

We wrote back in March about how subdomains are a powerful tool to manage a single website across multiple servers and even multiple web hosting providers. We’ve discussed DNS before, and it was even the co-subject of the Auction Podcast episode 8, but in a nutshell DNS is the index that tells a browser where the server is for a given name like www.auctioneertech.com. Sometimes we want to know everything we can about how our DNS is configured, including sudbomains, nameservers and mail records. A new service, currently in beta, called DNSCog aims to tell us these things and more.

DNSCog is a profuct from Dynamic Network Services, Inc., makers of the popular DynDNS which offers free DNS resolution. This company knows DNS, and they’ve made an easy to use, front end interface for common diagnostic tools. This interface couldn’t be simpler. Simply enter the domain name and click submit. The report you get back lists all relevant tests for a given domain name, the result of the test – pass, fail, info – and what it means and what you should do about it. You can even view the raw logs for each specific test if you want to see the exact responses returned from the servers tested.

In addition to the default DNSCog test, DNSCog also offers standard traceroute, whois and DNS lookup, as well as a DNSSEC verification tool to test for the new security protocol for domain names.

Head on over to dnscog.com and give it a spin. Even if you don’t understand everything about DNS or even why you would want to know these things about your domain names, the simple test results it returns may save you from serious problems and heartache later.

Have a better solution for DNS reporting? Let us know in the comments.